I get by with a little help from my friends

Every since the early 20' s Bro-romances have been around. What would you say are some of "The best Buddy films" ever? As a writer i would like to think that the reason the films are so good, is that they are all well written characters and stories to match. Somebody somewhere has taken the time and "Fleshed" out there buddies.

I have created this list because I looked around online for other similar list I found Three. That's right I found three (by the way i underestimate sometimes.) And the ones i did find were lacking. Lets get the show on the road and in no speacial order the 25 best buddy movies are...

*Laurel and Hardy the originators
* All of Abbot and Costello movie’s

* Butch Casidy and the Sundance Kid – Newman and

* Bert and Ernie - Yes Bert and Ernie

* Odd Couple - Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau

* Black Sheep and Tommy Boy - Farley and Spade.

* Thelma and Louise - probably one of the best movies in general.

* Turner and Hooch – Hanks and the Dog

* Any and all Pryor and Wilder Movie

* Lethal Weapon 1 - Gibson and Glover

* Tango and Cash – Russell and Stallone

Honorable Mention

* Clerks - O'Halloran and Anderson

* Money Train – Snipes and Haralson

* Harold and Kumar - Penn and Cho

* Rush Hour - Chan and Tucker

* Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Depp and Del Toro

* Bad Boys – Smith and Marin

* The Big Lebowski - Bridges and Goodman

* Pineapple Express - Rogan and Goldberg

last but not least...

* The Blues Brothers -Aykroyd and Belushi

I know that I missed a few but this is a good place to start.

Film Review: Coraline

Three words describe this classic adaptation of Neil Gaiman's best-selling children's book. Dark, Twisted and Awesome. I read somewhere how a filmmaker who is making film aimed at kids shouldn't be afraid to be scary. Contrary to popular belief kids will not break they aren't made of glass and Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas)does just that. The graphics are some of the best that i have ever seen and I didn't even see it in 3D. I found out later that it is only playing in 3D at certain theaters. I'm glad that my daughter didn't back out and still wanted to see it.

Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) has just moved into a new house with her parents. Her parents are both poor under paid writers for a popular gardening magazine and are also trying to write there own gardening book. The only problem, they are so busy writing they don't have time to garden or even have time for Coraline for that matter always brushing her aside to work. Her only friends are a neighborhood boy and a stray black cat. The boys grandmother owns the house that Coraline and her family live in but his grandmother will not allow him to step foot inside the house. She is afraid of something inside of it.

Like a twisted version of Alice in Wonderland Coraline finds a small Red door that is locked and that raises her curiosity even more. Doing what kids do best, she bugs her mother long enough she stops what she is doing finds an old skeleton key and tries the door. It opens to revel a solid red brick wall and all hopes of anything exciting happening in the old house have drizzled away that is until late one night Coraline has a vistor in the form of cute little Grey mice. She chases them though her room and down the stairs and she even watches them as they squeeze underneath the little Red door. she opens the door but this time there is no brick wall but a long tunnel with no end in sight. Her eyes light up as this is where the fun begins.

Film Review: Choke

Victor Mancini is a med school drop out making minimum wage as "historical interpreter" some where in New England. He has no real friends except for a one Denny(Brad Henke)who works with him. Denny also attends a 12 step program for sex addicts with Victor who is a sex addict in denial. He saves every penny and lives frugally but that's not enough to pay the $3,000 a month price tag for the care of his dear mother in a top clinic. So works part time for himself you could say. He cons rich people by choking at dinner and having them save his life. Its a rewarding experience for both parties. The hero feels needed there for sending monthly checks reliving the day every time they send a card filled with money and Vic earns enough to pay for his mother who buy the way taught him the con in the first place.

The movie is very sexual in nature and I found myself getting a little worked up watching some of the scenes at times but its not to bad falling a few steps of even a good soft porn. Meanwhile long time actor and first time director Clark Gregg does a fine job adapting Chuck Palahniuk novel which I havnt read yet but it is on my list at the libray along with a few others. I hear Palahniuk is a good read.

Inglourious Basterds trailer

Brad Pitt stars in director Quentin Tarantino's highly anticipated Nazi thriller, "Inglourious Basterds." Watch!


Sweet!

Film Review: Notorious

What does a Beauty Pageant winning little girl from Boulder and a Black street thug turned rapper from New York have in common. There murders will never be solved.

The streets were crowded as they slowly rolled out of the parking lot and to the corner of Wilshire and S. Fairfax. It was 12:45 when the Suburban came to a stop and the dark Impala pulled along side rolled down his window and quickly firing several shots into the car. 30 minutes later the greatest rapper and one of the greatest storytellers ever to live died leaving behind 2 children, a loving mother and millions of fans

New comer Jamal Woodward does a fantastic job at portraying Christopher Wallace aka Biggie Smalls. A drug dealing who just so happens to turn into the best rapper to ever touch a microphone Brooklyn kid who was abandoned by his father and raised by his mother a strong proud Jamaican woman played beautifully by Angela Basset. It is a rather bias film. I don’t think that Tupac was that big of an idiot but I do believe Lil’ Kim was that sexy and Faith could sing that good.

The film revolves around him growing up and when he finally does he is gunned down. The director George Tillman Jr. captures “the street” with a sense of real-ness missing in most movies today. There will not be a dry eye in the theater at the end even though you already know the ending it does a fantastic job of reveling it at the right time and the right way. Not to soon and not to late.

A must see for any Hip Hop / Biggie fans. 4½ out of 5 pot leaves. Loved it

Razzie nominations Worst Film of the Year

Disaster Movie
Disaster Movie witlessly mentions nearly every summer movie (from Iron Man to The Love Guru to Hancock) while an idiot (Matt Lanter) races to save his ex, Cloverfield-style, from an asteroid storm. Written By Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer

Meet the Spartans
The Bigger the Hit, The Harder They Fall.. Another lack luster movie for the summer making fun of all the summer hits. Written By Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer

The Happening
Whats really the wind??? Written By M. Night Shyamalan

The Hottie and the Nottie
Nate moves to L.A. to track down Cristabel(Paris Hilton), the woman he's been in love with since childhood written by Hedi Ferrer

In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
Farmer (Jason Statham), a tough guy who’s not much with words but is a whiz with a boomerang, searches for his kidnapped wife (Claire Forlani) while trying to avenge the death of his son. Written by Doug Taylor

The Love Guru
Guru Pitka (Mike Myers) hopes to become "the next Deepak Chopra" and appear on Oprah. Written by Mike Meyers. Not you best work Mike not by far.

Good Luck to those involved

81st Academy Awards nominations

The Electoral College process is a diffucult and complex thing to grasp but it isnt the half of what the Academy Awards have become. With the thousands or so votes tallied the nominations are in and "The Curious Case of Benjermin Button" has scored big with 13 nominations including the Best Picture and i have yet to see it. Dont know why but I havent. A intersting point to note is the last 20 years the Film with the most nominations wins the Best Picture award but history may be changing with only 2 films in the last 5 years to do so. There were some small suprise I thought and a few major snubs.

Now I have only been paying close attention for the past few years to Award season and i have learned a few things, like Comedies get NO Love and Neither do Anamated films no matter how well they did in the box office. On that note the one suprise to me was Robert Downey Jr. receiving a nodd in the Best Supporting Lead Role in the comedy Tropic Thunder another film that i need to get out to see. Rest asured that I have only missed a few films on these list and i will be seeing everyone before Feb 22 show.

In what i thought was the biggest snub of the year was the the great Clint Eastwood didnt receive any nominations for his acting in the great movie Gran Torino nor did it receive any nominations for anything. I thought that it was a shoe in for a Best Picture nod for sure. But i have been known to be wrong in the past. Eastwood's film the Changling which is another excellent film received only one nomination for Best Actress for Angelina Jolie in which i feel she will be the clear winner in that one.

Here is the complet list of all the Awards with an * designating my pick for the winner.

And the nominees are:

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button(Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Frost/Nixon(Universal)
Milk (Focus Features) A
The Reader(The Weinstein Company)
***Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight)

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Richard Jenkins in "The Visitor" (Overture Films)
Frank Langella in "Frost/Nixon" (Universal)
***Sean Penn in "Milk" (Focus Features)
Brad Pitt in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler" (Fox Searchlight)

This next catagory is a tough
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Josh Brolin in "Milk" (Focus Features)
Robert Downey Jr. in "Tropic Thunder" (DreamWorks, Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Doubt" (Miramax)
**Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)
**Michael Shannon in "Revolutionary Road" (DreamWorks)

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Anne Hathaway in "Rachel Getting Married" (Sony Pictures Classics)
***Angelina Jolie in "Changeling" (Universal)
Melissa Leo in "Frozen River" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Meryl Streep in "Doubt" (Miramax)
Kate Winslet in "The Reader" (The Weinstein Company)

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Amy Adams in "Doubt" (Miramax)
***Penélope Cruz in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (The Weinstein Company)
Viola Davis in "Doubt" (Miramax)
Taraji P. Henson in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Marisa Tomei in "The Wrestler" (Fox Searchlight)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
(Paramount and Warner Bros.) Screenplay by Eric Roth; Screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
Doubt (Miramax) Written by John Patrick Shanley
Frost/Nixon(Universal) Screenplay by Peter Morgan
The Reader(The Weinstein Company) Screenplay by David Hare
***Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Frozen River (Sony Pictures Classics); Written by Courtney Hunt
Happy-Go-Lucky (Miramax); Written by Mike Leigh
In Bruges(Focus Features); Written by Martin McDonagh
***Milk (Focus Features); Written by Dustin Lance Black
WALL-E (Walt Disney); Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon; Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR
Bolt(Walt Disney)
***Kung Fu Panda (DreamWorks Animation, Distributed by Paramount)
WALL-E (Walt Disney)

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros.) David Fincher
Frost/Nixon (Universal) Ron Howard
Milk(Focus Features) Gus Van Sant
The Reader (The Weinstein Company) Stephen Daldry
***Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) Danny Boyle

Go Slumdog Millionaire !!!!!!

Film Review: Defiance

An excellent story that played out well on the BIG SCREEN. In 1941 the Nazi's were storming though eastern Europe with nothing standing in there way. Three country brothers go into hiding in the thick forest after the women of the town are raped, there parents killed and there town burned. Daniel Craig plays the commander of the at first small group Jews who will not go out quietly.

The movie reminded me a little like the 80's movie i loved when i was growing up "Red Dawn" with Patrick Swazye who was the leader of a small group who also lived in the woods and fought off the invaders with guerrilla like tactics.

Film Review : Gran Torino

Happy New Year. I'm a little late I wish i could say that I have been busy but that would just be lying to you. Whomever you are. I started the New Year with a sneak peek at one of my nominations for the movie of the year!!!!

Clint Eastwood does a masterful job as he directs and plays Walt Kowalski, a old bitter Korean War Vet and recent widower. He isn't what you would call a people person. He has no need for his own children or grandchildren as they for him. He has no friends except for his dog Daisy. His past haunts him and has for over fifty years, causing him to be a sometimes a funny pigheaded racist bigot to everyone.

Late one night Grumpy ol' Walt is awakened to find someone snooping around in his garage separate from his house. He grabs his military issue rifle which has 14 kills attached to it and heads outside, only to find that it his skinny young Asian neighbor. A kid named Thao played by newcomer Bee Vang. Vang does a excellent job in playing a young boy who is lost and looking for his own way in his world which is filled with drugs and gangs. After Walt trips over junk in his garage Thao barley escapes with his life.

A few days later a disgraced Thao is forced into repaying Walt. He must help with whatever Walt needs in order to repay him for attempting to steal the only thing that Walt has left in this world a mint condition 1972 Gran Torino. Walt himself put the steering column in when he was a Ford factory worker where he worked till after he left the Army. Walt is true do-it-yourselfer and he thinks he needs no help but with a quick look around his neighborhood that is falling apart he puts Thao to work cleaning out gutters and painting. All this time Thao cousin is a punk thug who is constantly trying to recruit Thao. He wants him to join his gang and become a young Thug in the making but Thao doesn't want that way of life.

Without giving away any more than I already have Walt takes the boy under his wing. The movie is great with awesome dialogue and should be a big winner come award time.

2009 Sundance Film Festival

SUNDANCE ANNOUNCES 2009 COMPETITION LINEUP

Yesterday the Sundance Institute announced the lineup of films screening in the competition categories for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, which will take place Jan. 15-25 in Park City, Utah. I'm hoping to be in attendance at next years festival but till then i will wait patiently for the movies to come to a theater near-by. Some of the titles that jumped out at me are Joe Berlinger's Crude, Tom DiCillo's When You're Strange on the doc side Cary Fukunaga's Sin Nombre, Director Dana Perry's Boy Interrupted and rounding off Director Hamid Rahmanian's The Glass House

Deep as a Ganster...

The FBI try to take down Early American Gangsters John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd during there notorious crime wave of the 1930s.

No jail could hold him. His charm and audacious jailbreaks endeared him to almost everyone in the American public who had no sympathy for the evil banks that had plunged the country into the Depression.At the time no one could stop John Dillinger.

Acclaimed filmmaker Michael Mann directs Public Enemies staring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Academy Award® winner Marion Cotillard in the true story of the legendary bank robber John Dillinger (Deep) The charismatic bank robber whose lightning raids made him the number one target of J. Edgar Hoovers fledgling FBI and its top agent, Melvin Purvis (Bale), and a folk hero to much of the public.

RELEASE DATE: July 1 2009

Turkey Day / Film Review : Changeling

Happy Turkey Day to All who par-take in such a wonderful food filled day. I spent the first half of the day smoking and watching the lousy Detroit Lions get there asses handed to them. I'm one who will say that you cant fuck with tradition but the Lions need to be yanked from the Thanksgiving Day line-up. Please for the love of Jah! Then I went to my sisters house on the outside of town on the edge of suburbia and fuckin nowhere. My sister went on a date last night yea but what she wasn't expecting was for this guy to just show up today around noon and invite himself to diner. He had a good reasoning behind it being he was crazy enough to join the military and he is stationed at Buckley as an "Analyst" whatever that means. And to top the night off my cool ass brother n law Chuck had some friends come over to help eat the 10 pies that my mother slaved hours over the stove last night and with them was a very sexy young lady who just so happen to have the same phone as me and me being a little slow with cell phones she helped me though a few things. All in All a good Day




Clint Eastwood's Changeling is a riveting drama about a missing boy and the undying constancy of a mother's love. Angelina Jolie excels in a powerful performance as Christine Collins, whose nine-year-old son, Walter, disappeared in 1928. Five months later, police returned to her a boy they said was Walter; Christine alleged that the boy was not her son.

At the time, the Los Angeles police department was under considerable pressure due to the efforts of a Presbyterian minister, Reverend Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich), to expose corruption within the police force. Captain Jones (Jeffrey Donovan), who heads up the investigation, doesn't particularly care whether the boy is or isn't Walter Collins; he has a publicity campaign to manage that's all about making himself look good, so he tries to convince Christine to accept the found boy as her son. When she fights back by going to the press, Jones has her committed to the psycho ward.

The movie is based on a the true story of the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders in the late 1920s; Gordon Stewart Northcott molested, tortured, killed and dismembered 20 young boys on his farm before his nephew and accomplice confesses to police what was taking place. Because the film is based on real events, we know going in how it's going to end; the film's tension rides, therefore, not in the destination but in the journey to get there. Eastwood controls the film's pacing with a careful touch, letting us feel Christine's anguish, and taking us all the way down into her dark night of the soul before granting the emotional release at the film's somewhat redemptive end.

Jolie portrays a classic tragic heroine in the film; a single mother abandoned by Walter's father, she's raised her boy alone, and he's all she has. Her reaction to Captain Jones's refusal to accept that the boy the police have brought home to her is not her son goes from earnest insistence to stark disbelief to anger. The police captain, unwilling to acknowledge the failings of his department, makes her the enemy rather than the victim, alternately painting her in the press as a negligent mother who simply doesn't want to take responsibility for her son now that he's found, or perhaps a hysterical woman with delusions of paranoia.

This is a case of real life being stranger (or perhaps, more horrific) than fiction. If a screenwriter had written a script like this that was purely fictional, audiences would find it hard to accept. It seems rather fantastic to imagine that the police wouldn't simply believe a mother who says, this is not my child. Of course she would know her own child; I'd know any of my kids in a pitch black room, by the outline of their profiles, the feel of their hair, their unique scents. It's important to keep in perspective, though, that the film takes place in 1928, during a time with corruption on the police force was rampant, women were viewed as emotional and prone to bouts of hysteria, and people could be locked in a mental hospital to get them out of the way of those in power.

Anytime a film centers on the idea of a child in peril, the dramatic tension stakes are raised accordingly, but the conflict in the film works on many levels: in Christine facing the police captain; in the captain versus the preacher; in good cop versus bad cop; and, of course, in the broader theme of Christine facing the challenges women of that time faced in society generally. Watching that very real history play out -- the whole, "there now, be a good girl, keep your mouth shut and just do as you're told" mentality, rankles me to my very core, as I expect it will to most modern women watching it.

Eastwood relies largely on the strength of Jolie's performance to carry the film, playing up the bully-victim relationship to the hilt to create a sense of opposing forces crashing into each other. Jolie's mama-lioness performance is powerful -- she plays Christine as both strong and vulnerable, a woman who is both tethered to the restraints of the society in which she must maneuver, and fiercely resilient in her search for the truth about what happened to her son. Jolie's performance evokes her stylistically similar performance in A Mighty Heart; she spends most of the film wrenched in anguish that resonates to the core. In the latter third of the film, Christine undergoes a dramatic shift from the tragic woman who's lost a child to a heroine who must advocate for the rights of other women in similar situations, and one can't help but draw parallels to Jolie's own personal activism.

Donovan, as corrupt and dictatorial police captain, is infuriatingly smug, which is just as he should be for the role of a man who will stop at nothing -- not even the life of a child -- to protect his own sorry hide. John Malkovich sizzles as the preacher-with-a-cause, arcing his character nicely; Malcovitch's Brieglib starts out feeling like a grandstander, but his sympathies for Christine's plight ultimately shift his priorities. Amy Ryan sneaks in a nice supporting role as a former prostitute and fellow psych-ward detainee.

My one beef with the performances was with Jason Butler Harner as the murderer; this is a wretched, morally abysmal character, yes, but Harner kind of looks and feels like Kyle Maclachlan if he went on a really bad lost meth weekend and never came all the way back. His hysterical craziness is just a bit over-the-top and detracts from the film, but I suppose when you're playing a man who tortures little boys and chops them up with an ax, it's hard to find a middle-ground.

Regarding the other elements of the film, J. Michael Straczynski's script is first-rate; he's an excellent storyteller, and does a solid job of translating true events into a dramatic story. There's no jarring wooden dialog here, no overt exposition;

Film Review: Zach and Miri Make a Porno

I had my daughter today. And since i only get to see her for several hours at a time we usually check out a movie. No I didn't take to go see this movie i watched it after she left. Nothing makes me smile more than a child laughing. Any child for that matter could laugh and it would make my day. A close second to smiling is any Kevin Smith movie and he didn't let me down with this soon to be Classic.

Believe the Hype ----The movie starts out a little slow with best friends and roommates Zach(Seth Rogen)and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) pissed off about going to there 10 year high school reunion. The are reluctant about attending but both do so. Before they go Miri is changing her clothes in the back of the coffee shop that both work at full time While changing her clothes two punk kids capture video with there cell phone of Miri in a pair of big white granny panties and nothing else. The video is a instant internet sensation. Meanwhile Miri ultimate goal at the reunion is to find a old bully Bobby Long (Brandon Routh) that used to call her names and she will show him how she has turned out(and she has turned out very nice if i don't say so myself). She finds the bully to be very handsome and with some very clever Kevin Smith dialogue the two hit it off nicely while Zach is by himself in the corner drinking on a beer. Zach starts talking to a man at the bar who turns out to be s gay porn star and he tells Zach of the riches in those kinds of movies and he is also Brandon Long's gay lover.

Sooner rather than later, stacks of overdue bills comes into play as the dejected Zach and Miri make their way home and lose their water, then their power, then seemingly any rational means to erase their debt. Fearful that they will ultimately lose their apartment(This movie is filled with soon to be great one liners) they eventually decide to parlay their new found internet fame (that of the granny panties and bare ass) into dollars by making, yes, an adult feature. Zach's reasoning, which Miri eventually agrees with, is that they can at least sell it to the 850 people on their high school's alumni mailing list (obtained from the disastrous reunion). The solid understanding the two have about having sex together for the first time after being life-long friends is shot straight to hell when it turns out they can't separate those buried feelings for the sake of cashing in on their filmed physicality.

The side characters; Jay - Kenny from Kenny and Spenny and a few others are all well suited for the movie and score some laughs though out the flick. One question i have is i didn't see Kevin play any parts in the movie. DID HE?

Kevin Smith is brilliant as he nails the comedy aspect right on the head but then Zack and Miri garner some funny feelings for each other, and then you have to try and give and hoot about their relationship, and the comedy turns into a funny rom-com.You want them to fall in love. Kevin even adds another brilliantly funny scene at the end where the audience is lead to think that for sure Zach will never get the girl.

The movie just line after line of nasty and hilarious dialogue that you can quote with your friends for the next couple of weeks.

And in closing if I've learned anything from Zack and Miri, it's that everyone should dabble in porno at least once in their life.

Film Review: Kung Fu Panda

Time well spent.... In the movie by DreamWorks The Kung Fu Panda, Jack Black is the voice of Po, a clown-eyed, sheepishly neurotic panda of no visible athletic ability. Black gives Po a slightly abashed suburban-couch-potato sweetness.

The story starts off with Po, who works in his father's (Mr.Ping played by the very funny James Hong) noodle shop but he dreams of becoming a Kung Fu master one day. The day the great Dragon Warrior is to be named Po as usual is running late and he didnt make it in time to attend the ceremony in the Jade Palace, So he devises a crazy contraption where he ties a huge firework display to a wooden chair and lits the wick . He flies though the air landing hard in the middle of the area where the Furious Five - Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Crane (David Cross), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Mantis (Seth Rogen) - are showing off their Kung Fu skills. Po interrupts the ceremony where Oogway (Randell Duk Kim) who is the wisest in all in the land a giant tortoise is speaking and he decreed Po to be the great Dragon Warrior. That's when Kung Fu Panda ignites.

As Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) starts to train Po he notices the total lack of skill and he finds it quite funny - he's such a flabby sack of wrong moves that even his screwups have a bass-ackwards logic that is nearly balletic. But then being the great Master that he is Shifu figures out how to teach this hopeless case the art of kung fu. He uses a bowl of dumplings, which Po is so eager to eat that he'll scramble anywhere, at any speed, to get at them. Kung Fu Panda is light and goofy, yet the fight scenes, which are the heart of the film, are mad fun. Just about all animated movies teach you to Believe in Yourself (the rat who finds the courage to cook! The ogre who learns to love!), but the image of a face-stuffing panda-turned-yowling Bruce Lee dervish is as unlikely, and touching. TWO BIG THUMBS UP. A-

Splinter

The Variety had a review of this years Screamfest Horror Film Fest Winner 1st place award winner. Sounds pretty good

With: Jill Wagner, Paulo Costanzo, Shea Whigham, Rachel Kerbs.

F/x whiz Toby Wilkins' "Splinter" is a spare, effective and genuinely frightening retro-nightmare that will have teenage gore girls trooping to the movies like lurching swarms of George Romero's living dead. The socio-sexual-psychological attraction of "Splinter" -- which just won a rash of awards at Screamfest in Los Angeles -- will constitute as much of the film's draw as Quantum Creation's human sea urchins or the generous portions of blood served up by Wilkins and his makeup peeps. It's a chick flick with hemoglobin -- and a Halloween opening wasn't a bad idea, either.

Clearly out to evoke '70s horror, "Splinter" kicks off with a twist on the twisted familiar: Seth (Paulo Costanzo) and Polly (Jill Wagner) are going camping -- bad idea -- but they can't get the tent up. But hold on: It's when they get back into the presumed safety of their SUV (there's a subliminal green message in there somewhere) that they're abducted by the malignant Dennis (Shea Whigham) and his crystal meth-addled girlfriend, Lacey (Rachel Kerbs). What initially seems to be shaping up as a hostage drama a la "The Desperate Hours," however, becomes something very different indeed.

Dennis is a wonderfully hateful thug, who immediately zeroes in on the intellectual Seth and makes him look weak in front of Polly, who's been driving their SUV. (Seth can't drive stick! A sure sign of weenie-hood.) But then Polly runs over some animal that looks like a road pie with spines, and Lacey starts talking to it, thinking it's her long lost dog Ginger (you knows she's a goner).

But the Thing, this spiny, splintery mass, trails our scream quartet and backs them into a convenience store. There, the proprietor has already been reduced to a bloody, needle-y mass, and the three (yes, we're down to three) fight for their lives, with all the duct tape, wire hangers and fireworks they need to keep the porcupine-ish menace at bay.

The mechanics of "Splinter" are remarkably sound -- the script moves from place to place with a minimal amount of implausibility, once you get beyond the raging-mold-spore theory by which Seth (conveniently, a Ph.D candidate in biology) figures out what's out there. The convenience store is a character all its own.

But it's Polly who's the engine of all this: She can't help but respond, however subtly, to Dennis' man of action while disdaining Seth in his more brainiac moments. Seth acquits himself admirably enough, but Wagner (yes, boys, the spokesmodel in all those Lincoln-Mercury ads), does a wonderful job of internalizing Polly's wavering allegiance to strong Seth vs. cerebral Seth, mirroring the kinds of psychosexual debates raging among the likely aud for this taut little bloodbath.

The effects, used rather smartly and sparingly, are great: The disembodied hand that chases the characters around their ersatz 7-Eleven is vaguely comical, but only because it's so terrifying. There's not a lot of explanation about where the splinters come from, aside from Seth's scientific theory about heat and cold and a monster that operates on a purely cellular basis. In an era of environmental awareness, Wilkins seems to be after a deeper, nuanced message than pure horror, punctuated by his "Kiss Me Deadly"-style ending.
More than one option

* (Person) Todd Wagner
Executive Producer
* (Person) Todd Wagner
Associate Producer, Executive Producer, Line Producer
* (Person) Todd Wagner
Actor
2007 - Edward James Olmos, Michael D. Olmos

Camera (Deluxe color), Nelson Cragg; editor, David Michael Maurer; music, Elia Cmiral; production designer, Jennifer Spence; art director, Thomas Spence; sound (Dolby Digital), David Stevens; supervising sound editors, Ben Wilkins, Jon Johnson; re-recording mixers, Ben Wilkins, Stanley Kastner; creature design/special makeup effects, Quantum Creation FX; special makeup/creature effects producer, Christian Beckman; special makeup/creature effects supervisor, Justin Raleigh; special makeup effects department head, Ozzy Alvarez; key special makeup effects artist, Danielle Noe; stunt coordinator, Jackson Burns; visual effects supervisors, Toby Wilkins, David Sosalla, George Cawoon; assistant directors, Graeme Finlayson, Buntho Lafragiola; casting, Lauren Bass, Chris Freihofer. Reviewed at Aidikoff screening room, Beverly Hills, Oct. 23, 2008. (In Screamfest Horror Film Festival, Los Angeles.) MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 82 MIN.

By JOHN ANDERSON
www.variety.com

With Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Kevin Smith learns his low-brow brand of humor is no longer considered taboo.

Here is a good read from the Filmmakers.com interview with Kevin Smith


Always straddling the line between indie and mainstream films, Kevin Smith has grown a dedicated fan base for his original comedies since coming on the scene with the no-budget, black-and-white Clerks in 1994. But with his latest film, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Smith finds himself entering a theatrical world in which his disarmingly sweet mixture of toilet humor, romance and pop-culture reflection is not so unusual. With Judd Apatow working similar gross-out, meet-cute strategies in comedy smashes like Knocked Up, Smith finds himself an elder statesman when it comes to humorous cinematic raunch.

In his latest film Smith has put away Jay and Silent Bob and left his Jersey roots for snowy Pittsburgh. But the most notable change is who is delivering the lines: Apatow regular Seth Rogen. One of the few actors not in the View Askewniverse who can handle Smith‘s profanity-laced fanboy dialogue, Rogen, with his everyman look, easily slips into Smith‘s usual slacker protagonist role while his writing credits in films like The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up give him the cred to claim a spot in Smith‘s cheerfully vulgar world.

In the film Rogen and Elizabeth Banks play best friends/roommates Zack and Miri who after having their utilities shut off, decide to make a quick buck by shooting a porno. After finding a cast (including Smith regular Jason Mewes and porn stars Katie Morgan and Traci Lords) and financier (The Office‘s Craig Robinson), all that‘s left is a porn title — Star Whores. In a hilarious montage, the team creates revealing costumes and crude sets that would make George Lucas either chuckle or gag. But when their set is unexpectedly leveled by a demolition crew, Zack and Miri are left to think up another porno idea (and title) and, in the process, realize that when friends have sex it does change everything.

Smith says the title helps turn away the curious folk who may not know what they‘re getting into. But for the most part it‘s a MacGuffin. At its center, like all of Smith‘s films, Zack and Miri is a movie about relationships.

Filmmaker talked to Smith before he premiered the film at the Toronto International Film Festival about courting Rogen, his latest tussle with the MPAA and his first foray into horror. The film opens Oct. 31 through The Weinstein Company and MGM.

I really dug the film.

Thank you. I was thinking the other day, “Man, am I ever going to be in Filmmaker again?”

I just reread the cover story we did on you for Chasing Amy before this conversation Yeah. It‘s been a while.

Where did the idea of doing this film come from?

I was meeting with Harvey Weinstein — I think we were doing Clerks II at that point — and he asked me what I wanted to do next. I said, “I‘m thinking of writing this movie called Zack and Miri Make a Porno” and he goes, “Done. Greenlit. Finished.” And I was like, “What do you mean? Don‘t you want to hear what the movie is about?” And he‘s like, “C‘mon Kevin, doesn‘t the title say it all?” And I was like, “Well, I guess you‘re right on some level.” Then ironically when we were in production Bob [Weinstein said], “I think we have to change that title, it just gives everything away. You know what they‘re doing before you see the movie!” I was like, “Bob, the title was announced six months ago and it was really favorably received online. I think it would be silly to change it at this stage in the game.” And he said, “Well, just keep an open mind, listen to this: ‘Zack and Miri Make a Movie.‘ ” And I was like, “Make a movie? Okay, Bob, that would not make me want me to see it.” A week later USA Today wrote an article in which they quoted the dude from Exhibitor Relations saying this is one of the best titles of the year and suddenly that argument went away.

And your interest in Seth Rogen came from watching the scene in The 40-Year-Old Virgin where he and Paul Rudd are playing video games?

Yeah, and not so much the, “You know how I know you‘re gay?” which is adorable, but the “Fuck you!” at the end, which I thought was brilliant. I‘m watching it on DVD, sitting at my computer answering e-mails, and when Seth‘s character tells the story about seeing a chick make it with a horse my ears perk up because we just did a donkey show [in Clerks II]. Mercifully it has nothing to do with what we did but at the same time his delivery is so perfect. I was like, “I love this dude — he sounds like one of my characters. I want to work with this guy!” I thought since he plays a supporting role in that movie, I can write him a lead and then this dude will pop huge and he‘ll owe me forever. I‘ll have Affleck version 2.0! But by the time I got to writing it, I was frightened as fuck because I started seeing him on billboards for Knocked Up. I thought my plan was ruined. At that point I learned that he‘s not just an actor, he‘s a writer, so he doesn‘t need anyone to generate material for him. I thought I missed my window, but thankfully he liked the script a lot.

I feel the one person who was put on this Earth to deliver your dialogue is Jason Lee, but Rogen is a close second.

Absolutely. And if I made this film 10 years ago it would have been Jason Lee in a heartbeat.

But let‘s talk about when you can‘t get the actor you want. You wrote the Miri part originally for Rosario Dawson.

Yeah, I had such a good time working on Clerks II with her. I thought she was fantastic. The whole time I‘m working on the Zack and Miri script I‘m telling her and she‘s like, “Right on.” Then I gave her the script and her one question is, “Isn‘t it close to Becky in as much like I fall in love with a loser again?” And I was like, “This is comedy in the 21st century! It‘s all about women and losers. That‘s all I‘ve ever done.” We never went to her with an official offer but it was understood that I was writing it for her. Then I found out online that she committed to do Eagle Eye, which I get — it‘s Shia LeBeouf and D.J. Caruso and Spielberg is producing, but, man, to find out that way, reading online? Suddenly we were in open territory. We narrowed it down to six names and, alphabetically, Elizabeth Banks was at the top of the list. Now I liked all the other names, but I liked Banks because she‘s always been really good in everything I‘ve seen, particularly Invincible. Seth immediately went to Banks. She was in 40-Year-Old Virgin and had gotten pretty far in the Knocked Up auditions — she had just missed it. So I met her and she came on.

What‘s it like working with someone like Rogen who can both write and improvise?

He‘s the goods and a smart motherfucker. Everyone‘s like, “Oh, he loves to improv,” but I don‘t think of it like that. I think of it more as adlibbing than improvising. Improv to me is like, “Let‘s go and make up everything.” Seth is innately gifted at finding a way to inject a line that doesn‘t derail a scene. They are what the character would say and they move the plot forward. I have never met anybody as good at that as Seth. That being said, the dude would do the script and then do the adlibs.

How did you end up setting the film in Pittsburgh?

The first draft was set in Minnesota in Saint Cloud because I wanted to go to the one place in the world that nobody would think about making porn. If the San Fernando Valley is the cradle of porn, I wanted to be in a place that‘s the opposite of that on every front. And then, I think [producer Scott] Mosier suggested Pittsburgh, where we shot Dogma. We got a huge tax-incentive break by shooting there, and I thought Pittsburgh made even more sense than Saint Cloud because Minnesota at least has the Twin Cities, and it seems a more cultured area than Pittsburgh, which is largely considered a steel town.

You have both a porn star and a porn legend in the film. How did that happen?

Seth was delighted that he didn‘t have as many hats to wear [on this film] as he normally does, but he‘s an idea man and it‘s tough to turn that off. So right away he was like, “I think for the roles of Stacy and Bubbles we should get real porn actresses.” His point was you get an adult film actress and when it comes time to disrobe you‘re hitting them up with something that is a thousand times easier than what they would normally do on a set. You can‘t ask a porn actress to do anything that‘s more outrageous than what she does in her day job. So I was looking on YouTube and I saw this clip from an actress I‘d never heard of named Katie Morgan. It wasn‘t a porn clip, it was a performance clip — the acting part of a porn. I thought, “This chick can act.” She‘s funny. So we brought her in and she was great. Traci Lords came way later in the game. We never wanted to go to Traci Lords because we thought she‘s done with porn, and even casting her in a movie that has porno in the title will never happen. She dug the script, though, and said, “It is kind of tough for me to do based on who I am and where I came from, but that shit happened 20 years ago. Maybe it‘s time to embrace it and say, ‘Yeah I did porn.‘” So we got lucky there.

You were successful to get the film down from NC-17 to an R-rating.

I read that this latest appeal is your third win. What‘s the secret?

The first one I can‘t really take huge amounts of credit for because there was no way that wasn‘t going to get overturned. This was for Clerks and it was all language-based. It was just people sitting around talking. Jersey Girl they initially gave us an R for a sequence in which Ben [Affleck] and Liv [Tyler] are in the diner talking about masturbation. I think [head of Classification and Rating Administration] Joan Graves was like, “If I had a 16-year-old daughter I don‘t think I would want her sitting there listening to this con-versation.” My point was that if you‘ve got a 16-year-old daughter she knows exactly what sex is, and she‘s not going to learn anything new about masturbation from this movie. So with that one I actually had to get up and plead my case. But with Zack and Miri I really felt like I was fucking Clarence Darrow standing up there! This is the first time where I felt like we could actually lose because they had visuals to point to. But luckily I was able cite precedents. Yes, there is a lot of thrusting in the sex scenes in [Zack and Miri], so I cited Taking Lives with Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke and pointed out there‘s a sex scene between those two actors that is about as steamy as anything I‘ve ever seen in a mainstream movie. That scene is designed to titillate, it‘s erotic in nature, but our scene is comedic — it‘s a fucking caricature of sex. It‘s a caricature of a caricature because we‘re not even showing real sex. Porno sex is ridiculous and funny to begin with because nobody, I don‘t care who you are, nobody does 26 positions in 10 minutes. It just doesn‘t happen. So that seemed to work, and they overturned it 10 to 4.

The business has changed a lot since you burst on the scene with Clerks in 1994.
If you were starting out today, how do you think you‘d try to break in?

If I was starting right now I would be like, “Hey, Apatow does it.” [laughs] I would use that dude left and right. People ask me, “Man, don‘t you hate Apatow?” And I say, “I love Judd Apatow. a) He makes good movies, and b) the dude has proven that material like ours has an audience.” I have never gone above $30 million [box office gross] on any film and my stuff is kind of the same formula as his in that it is very dirty and it‘s very sweet at the same time. He has been able to punch through and prove that there‘s more of an audience out there for a movie like this than the audience that I‘ve had thus far.

Let‘s talk about your next film, Red State, which sounds like a real departure for you.

Red State is as much a 180-degree turn as you can get from Zack and Miri. It‘s not comedic at all. It‘s a straightforward horror/thriller but it‘s not a standard slasher movie — it‘s political horror. For the first time in almost 15 years the Weinsteins said no and it‘s not even an expensive movie. It‘s like a $5 million movie and they were like, “We don‘t know how to market this, we don‘t know how to sell this, and it‘s more trouble than it‘s worth.” I couldn‘t be mad, they‘ve said yes to everything else. So I can go out now and independently make it. It will be the first time we‘ve made an indie film since Clerks. But finding people to back it has been tough because it‘s rather touchy subject matter.

What‘s it about? It‘s about fundamentalism that goes to a heinous degree.

After Sept. 11 we were looking for the enemy outside and this is about looking for the enemy within. Before we discovered international terrorism on our home soil we‘ve been multiple victims of domestic terrorism. It will be very traumatic and very horrific. It‘s either going to work like gangbusters or people are going to be like, “Go back to comedy, you idiot!” It‘s going to be a real changeup. It‘s very Spartan when it comes to dialogue and it‘s not about relationships. But I gotta tell you, when people say they don‘t want to put in the money, it‘s a little off-putting but it fuels me a little more. Nothing worthwhile is easy and this is the farthest from easy, so Jesus, it must be worthwhile.

BY JASON GUERRASIO

Review: The Midnight Meat Train

There was a time when the only books on my shelf were either written by Stephen King or Clive Barker. The King books were an inevitability, seeing how every young horror fan at birth already owns at least a one of his novels, but the Barker books were a later discovery (in jail on the book mobile)that helped guide my imagination down a much darker path, where even the likes of King never dared to tread.

I got my hands on the BOOKS OF BLOOD in my late teens and was enthralled by the atrocities contained within.The story that stood out was THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN, a tale of urban decay and the horrors encountered in the labyrinthine tunnels of the New York City underground subway system.

After seeing this film I’ve only got one question to ask, "If any recent horror movie deserved a full theatrical release, it’s The Midnight Meat Train." it was truly outstanding and should be the hit that Clive Barker needed.

The protagonist Leon a young vegan who is a struggling photographer who aims to capture the down and dirty areas of the inner city life, what he believes to be "the real city". However, upon taking numerous photos of the homeless, he unknowingly captures the image of a famous Japaneses woman who subsequently disappears. This coupled with photos of a strange man who travels the last subway train every night spur Leon to investigate the disappearance of this woman further.

In his English directorial debut Ryuhei Kitamura does a outstanding job. Bradley Cooper plays Leon as he slowly slips into madness just to get that perfect shot.

Actors union moves closer to strike vote

SAG NATIONAL TV/THEATRICAL NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE PASSES ADVISORY MOTION TO NATIONAL BOARD\

Los Angeles, CA (October 1, 2008) – The National TV/Theatrical Negotiating Committee of Screen Actors Guild today passed the following advisory motion to the National Board:

“Whereas, Screen Actors Guild has been and remains willing and able to continue formal and continuous negotiations with the AMPTP and the employers, with the intention of reaching a mutually-acceptable deal; and

Whereas, the National Board has unanimously identified the core principles of new media jurisdiction and new media residuals as essential elements of any agreement in the Television/Theatrical contract negotiations; and

Whereas, preservation of longstanding force majeure protections for actors is of self-evident importance; and

Whereas, the President and Chief Negotiator have communicated this view to the AMPTP and the employers, and have requested that they return to the bargaining table to negotiate a fair deal; and

Whereas, the AMPTP and the employers have refused to change their position and have continued to refuse to meet to attempt to advance the negotiations; and

Whereas, in the opinion of the National Negotiating Committee, the AMPTP and the employers will only seriously engage in further negotiations after the members of the Guild express their confidence in their leadership by authorizing them to take all actions necessary to protect the interests of the membership, including a strike; and

Whereas, although the National Board has already unanimously delegated the authority to take a strike authorization vote to the National Negotiating Committee, in the opinion of the Committee, the strong and public support of the National Board for the necessity of a strike authorization at this time is a necessary prerequisite for its success;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Negotiating Committee that:

A strike authorization vote of the membership is necessary to overcome the employers’ intransigence, and the Committee therefore recommends that the National Board authorize such a vote be taken; and further recommends:
That the National Board adopt a resolution strongly supporting such an action, and recommending that the membership vote in favor of a strike authorization; and

That the National Board endorse an educational campaign advocating a “yes” membership vote, to give the authority to the National Board to call a strike only if the National Board deems it necessary and unavoidable to do so. “

Adopted: October 1, 2008

------------------------------------------


The SAG's national board, a 71-member body, is scheduled to meet Oct. 18. A simple majority is needed to approve the call for a strike vote.

The guild on Monday called for talks to resume, sending the request in a letter addressed to the alliance, The Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert Iger and News Corp. (NWS)'s Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin.

The producers' chief negotiator, J. Nicholas Counter III, said he declined to resume talks because SAG continues to insist on terms the companies have rejected.

The guild wants union coverage of all shows made for the Internet, regardless of budget, and residual payments for actors on made-for-Internet shows that are reused on the Internet. It also demands protections for actors during work stoppages.

The alliance has stuck by a final offer it made June 30, which it said mirrored deals accepted by directors, a smaller actors union called the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and writers following their strike.

The producers have said the proposal is worth $250 million in additional compensation over three years, a figure SAG disputes.

As of Aug. 15, the alliance withdrew an offer to backdate the increases to July 1, and, according to its Web site, actors had lost some $21 million in increases by Wednesday night by not approving the deal.

Last month, 87 percent of the 10,300 actors who responded to a guild survey backed its leaders' drive for a better deal. The producers alliance called the survey materials "hopelessly one-sided."

Paul Newman

Paul Newman died yesterday at the age of 83. We know that we cant live forever and life is a short gift to us and this man definitely made the best of his time here. He has been nominated 8 times for the Best Lead Actor Oscar and he has won the award 1 time in The Color of Money when he plays Fast Eddie Felson who teaches a cocky but immensely talented protégé the ropes of pool hustling, which in turn inspires him to make an unlikely comeback.

Disney, Depp return to 'Caribbean'

Johnny Depp is the main man at the Mouse House.

Depp has agreed to reprise his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in a fourth "Pirates of the Caribbean" pic and play Tonto in a bigscreen adaptation of "The Lone Ranger," both produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. He will also star as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s version of "Alice in Wonderland."

The roles come after Depp helped Disney earn a combined $2.6 billion at the box office with the three pics in the "Pirates" franchise, also produced by Bruckheimer.

"Alice in Wonderland," skedded for 2010, will be shot using 3-D and performance capture technology similar to that used for "Beowulf."

Depp’s casting deals closed a full day Wednesday at the Kodak Theater, where Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook touted the Mouse’s upcoming slate of pics during a showcase event for exhibitors, media and other industry insiders.

Toons provided the company’s other big news.

Disney-Pixar’s "Cars" has proved such a major moneymaker for the Mouse House that Disney is moving the release of the sequel up a year to summer 2011.

In addition to shifting the date for "Cars 2," studio also announced that it will produce a series of animated short films starring Mater and other characters from the first feature.

Shorts will air on TV, including the Disney Channel, and in theaters in front of films.

"You’ll see them everywhere," Cook said. "We’re going to keep this ‘Cars’ thing going."

"Cars," which was released in 2006 and went on to earn $462 million worldwide, has become a runaway hit in merchandise sales for the studio. Pic will also be prominently featured at a revamped California Adventure in Anaheim; "Cars Land," a 12-acre section of the park, opens in 2011. Move of the sequel from 2012 now times it to coincide with the attraction’s launch.

Before a full screening of Disney’s upcoming toon "Bolt," Cook also touted the studio’s commitment to 3-D animation, saying the company has released more pics in the format than any other studio.

Cook even managed a playful jab at DreamWorks Animation’s Jeffrey Katzenberg, who has long championed the format and is readying to roll out a slate of 3-D toons.

"I heard that Jeffrey may finally release his first 3-D movie next year," Cook quipped.

Disney has five live-action and animated pics set to unspool in 3-D next year and a slate of 16 in development.

Although several sequences in "Bolt" weren’t yet completed, the fast-paced pic, produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios but showing off considerable Pixar touches, played extremely well with the Kodak crowd, with Rhino, a hamster going around on a wheel, generating considerable laughs.

The Walt Disney Studios Showcase has essentially turned into a splashy, ShoWest-like event in Hollywood for the company to parade out stars and screen extended clips for a couple thousand attendees in various sectors of the biz to promote its future projects. Last time it held the showcase was in 2005, also at the Kodak.

In addition to Depp, who took the stage dressed as Jack Sparrow while wearing the Lone Ranger mask, this year’s event also featured the cast of "High School Musical" plus Dwayne Johnson, Miley Cyrus, John Travolta and Robin Williams. Adam Sandler appeared in a pretaped sequence with the studio chairman. And Cook even had a conversation with the four-legged star of "Beverly Hills Chihuahua."

Bruckheimer and Nicolas Cage announced a third 'National Treasure.' Although talkshow queen Oprah Winfrey wasn’t present, it was announced that she will voice the mother of the princess in hand-drawn toon "The Princess and the Frog," set in New Orleans.

Cook called the upcoming pics for the rest of this year and 2009 "the most creative slate of films in Disney history" and showed sequences from "High School Musical 3: Senior Year," "Bedtime Stories," "Race to Witch Mountain," "Hannah Montana: The Movie," "Old Dogs," "The Princess and the Frog," Robert Zemeckis’ "A Christmas Carol" and Pixar’s next pic, "Up."

During an intro for "HSM 3," Cook teased that he would sing a song from the first bigscreen installment of the runaway Disney Channel franchise but quickly backtracked.


By MARC GRASER
Variety